Kingfisher employees reject plan of salary in instalments

The striking employees of the debt-ridden Kingfisher Airlines have rejected its offer for payment their salary dues in three instalments before Diwali.

The airline management, in an attempt to restore its scheduled operator’s permit, made this offer during its talks with representatives of the striking employees on Monday in Mumbai.

Sanjay Agarwal, CEO of  Kingfisher Airlines, met the representatives of the airlines engineers, pilots and other staff with an offer to pay the first instalment of their salary for three months in 24 hours, the second instalment in a week and the third instalment before Diwali.

However, the representatives rejected the offer and demanded a minimum of four months’ salary to be cleared in two days. They said verbal assurances from the management would not work anymore. They also questioned the management over the absence of Vijay Mallya, chairman of the airline, in the meeting. Mallya should lead the management in future talks, they said. However, Aggarwal described Monday’s talks as fruitful.  A fair offer was made to the employees hoping that they would return to work by October 26, he said.

“We will know the logistics, but the intention is everyone should be back at work in a day or two,” he said. He assured that the remainder of the salary arrears would be cleared once the three instalments are cleared.